Guardian Nature School Team Contact Blog Project Noah Facebook Project Noah Twitter

A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife

Join Project Noah!
nature school apple icon

Project Noah Nature School visit nature school

Banyan Fig (aka Indian Banyan)

Ficus benghalensis

Description:

The Banyan Fig (aka Indian Banyan) is a large evergreen tree of the Moraceae family. The characteristic "melting" appearance is due to its habit of dropping aerial roots from its branches, which upon reaching the ground thicken into supplementary trunks which help to support the weight of its crown. Individuals grow into massive trees and are considered to be amongst the largest trees in the world. Native to the Indian subcontinent where it has great cultural significance.

Habitat:

It is found in subtropical, warm temperate and dry rainforest, where, as an emergent tree, its crown may tower above the canopy, particularly along watercourses on alluvial soils. They thrive in Brisbane with its cool dry winters and hot humid summers.

Notes:

There are three large figs in this grouping, all of which provide cover for a really neat kid's playground. These are old trees, and were spotted in New Farm Park which is located in the inner-city Brisbane suburb of New Farm. The park was created in 1914.

Species ID Suggestions



Sign in to suggest organism ID

5 Comments

LaurenZarate
LaurenZarate 9 years ago

Wow, super. Such a fantastic group of trees. Banyan Fig, neat.

Neil Ross
Neil Ross 9 years ago

I've learned something today, Lauren. These trees are listed as Moreton Bay Figs, and my reference was the Brisbane City Council. The 'melting' aerial roots on there are quite spectacular, but no signs of the buttress roots. I took that as gospel and saw no need to question it, and people simply refer to these trees as Moreton Bay Figs. However.... digging deeper, I find other sources that say these are Ficus benghalensis. References and image searches add weight to this, so I'm going to re-name this spotting as such - Banyan Fig. It's always good to question things, but is something I failed to do in this case.

LaurenZarate
LaurenZarate 9 years ago

These are remarkable Neil, don't know how I missed this one. I can't believe that they are the same tree as the one in Santa Barbara, California. This looks more like the strangler figs in the tropics, and so strange that the roots remain vertical instead of spreading outwards.

Neil Ross
Neil Ross 10 years ago

These trees would be about the same age, but whereas yours has the massive buttress roots, these have the massive aerial roots. What amazing and beautiful trees they are... on both sides of the Pacific.

Ava T-B
Ava T-B 10 years ago

Lovely. Here's San Diego's most famous MBF http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/770...

Neil Ross
Spotted by
Neil Ross

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Spotted on Jun 29, 2013
Submitted on Jun 29, 2013

Related Spottings

Ficus Ficus carica. Higuera Goolar Fig Tree Ficus tree

Nearby Spottings

Boab Tree Australasian Darter Australian White Ibis Noisy Minor
Noah Guardians
Noah Sponsors
join Project Noah Team

Join the Project Noah Team